Hello everyone. I know it's been a long time since I've written, but I will be honest I got lazy at the end of last year and hope I can be more consistent in my blogging this year.
Greg and I have just finished traveling our first holiday in Asia. We had the first week of October off to celebrate the harvest. So we decided to take a trip to southern Korea with our friends, Joey, Amy and Dave. We had a direct flight from Hong Kong to Seoul, where we stayed for 5 nights. Seoul is the capital of S. Korea and had a lot of character. I would describe in two words; busy and cute! Greg and I spent a lot of time wondering the streets, getting lost and trying to soak in the culture. On every corner and hidden in most back alleys you can find the cutest cafes. Here we often made stops to try a cup of tea or coffee, read a book or surf the quick internet (especially in comparison to China's). We visited some of the shopping streets like Insa-dong, where there are lots of places to eat and many traditional gifts to buy. There were several stores selling this beautiful moss green pottery and I desperately wanted to take it all home with me. We also went to Itaewon, another shopping street and then to a place called Myeong-dong, a large area full of well known stores from around he world. Here Greg and I also tried out some street food. Greg tried these fat rice noodles that were covered in a red hot sauce and I had some dumplings with glass noodles and pork in them. We were both satisfied with our decisions. On our last day in Seoul Greg and I went to the Modern Art Museum, where I was very impressed by the four shows they had on.
Our friends Amy and Dave took us out one night for traditional Korean BBQ and here we got our first real taste of what Koreans eat everyday. Our table was round with a small hibachi-like BBQ sunk in the middle of it. There was also a pipe hanging from the ceiling that sucked up any of the smoke coming from our cooking. We ordered two large plates of different cuts of pork and also had some weird soup, and rice. It was all quite good, but Greg and I think Chinese BBQ is better. We also tried one Korea's famous alcohols, Soju. It tasted a Tony bit better than Chinese Bijou, and had the same affect. On top of what we order, we were also served 5-8 other tiny dishes of 'randomness' (as I like to call it). Each tiny dish has a different vegetable or noodle in it and most are pickled and soaked in a spicy sauce. These tiny dishes are served at most Korean meals and are meant as appetizers or snacks to compliment your meal...we disliked most of them.
On the Tuesday of our trip, Greg and I booked a tour to go see the demilitarized zone (DMZ), which is the boarder between North and South Korea. On our trip we learned briefly about Korea's past and it's war with the Japanese as well as the war that separated the North and South. We walked through underground tunnels were soldiers dug to get underneath the fence that divides the two countries. We also went to the edge of the South and looked into the North, but there wasn't much to see except a small town on the other side. Interestingly they also have one of the largest flags in the world. They wanted to make sure they had a bigger flag than the South. We ended our tour by going to visit a train station that the South built a few years ago that isn't operating, but is ready to open the moment the North and South unify as one country. It was rather silly to see a modern large empty train station with nothing in it.
We also took a fast train down to S. Korea's next largest city, Busan, for a three night stay. Here they have a big beautiful beach with cafes lining the city's edge. They also have a few temples, and we visited a beautiful cemetery funded by the U.N. for all those who fought and died in the war. Here we also got to try another one of Korea's alcoholic creations called Macawly (spelling?) As my friend Joey put it"it looks like scrambled egg, and doesn't taste much better". Busan was a nice city to visit, but I am sure we would have enjoyed it a lot more if it wouldn't have been 13degrees out. The beaches were beautiful, but too chilly to enjoy.
Our last night was spent back in Seoul and we caught the plane home early the next morning. South Korea was very safe (they have little thief), it was full of helpful and friendly people, and had a lot of English speakers. It's only downfall is that it was costlier trip than most of our others, and I am sure it would have nicer to visit in the summer, but we were happy to see a glimpse of Fall, it was nice to see some of the leave changing color. Oh well, we'll get a nice tan at Christmas!
sounds good
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